Back to CW and his family…
CW has a One Name Study already on the go on WikiTree. Which has come in so very handy. He has it structured in part by early W’s – everywhere he had already found them.
To further my own research of his brickwall I have to study ALL of the early W’s in Maine. I
ended up researching outside of Maine because another W researcher had a fella from South Carolina mixed in with the Maine W’s. Can’t have that!
So Maine it is and will be for this client.
Today, in Grandma’s Genes offices, I hung a big piece of paper and drew a map of Maine on it. Then I printed a map of Waldo County, Maine and hung it on the bigger map. Getting your area up on a wall when doing cluster genealogy can be incredibly helpful. You can also go new school and use Google Earth as well (using Google Earth for Genealogy will be another Blog post).
For now it’s just the idea of using maps in whatever form to help you.
Right now I have the area’s that I have documented for a specific theory – unproven – of how the W family moved around in Maine. Richard’s son Simeon has a biographical note about him in the (the son) “was born in Scarboro, Maine. His parents soon after moved to Cornish, Maine, then to Parsonfield, and in 1833 they removed to Troy, Maine” ( reference given upon request to protect the privacy of CW’s family).
My hand-drawn map now has Scarborough, Parsonfield and Troy highlighted in yellow. I can look back over my shoulder and see it and it helps me see what towns or villages might have been in between during this family’s travels to Waldo. This means I have clues about where I might find further information.
No I didn’t take a picture of the one I drew – ok, I did but I deemed my artwork unworthy of your eyes.
CW and his brick wall grab me away from other things off and on during the months I have been working with my genealogical sledge hammer. It’s a nice distraction. An even bigger distraction is the hand-drawn map of Maine. If any of you reading this is a client, I will give you a grand tour of my map of Maine, next time you are in the office.
Genealogy On Folks!